Capacitors are passive circuit components that are utilized in integrated circuitry of a semiconductor chip for various purposes. For example, capacitors can be utilized to decouple power supplies, to form memory elements, to form RC delay circuits, or provide various other circuit functions. While many types of capacitor structures can be utilized, MIM capacitors are commonly used for analog, microwave, and RF (radio frequency) applications. MIM capacitors are comprised of two metal plates separated by an insulator material. The fabrication of planar MIM capacitors using conventional CMOS technologies requires multiple lithographic masking steps, which is time consuming and expensive. In this regard, the amount and complexity of additional processing steps that are incorporated as part of a semiconductor process flow to fabricate MIM capacitors should be minimized to reduce the fabrication costs and processing time for constructing semiconductor chips. In addition, since planar MIM capacitors typically occupy a relatively large footprint of die area, there is a need for small footprint, high capacitance MIM capacitor structures for highly-integrated advanced semiconductor chip applications.